BJP brass tells state units to check rifts ahead of Lok Sabha elections

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership has instructed its state units to ensure disagreements between the old guard and those who joined the party from other political outfits do not derail preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

According to party functionaries aware of the discussions, reports of friction that are spilling into the open have become a concern in a bunch of states, such as Karnataka, poll-bound Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal, where leaders either threatened to or have quit the party.

In Karnataka, party strongman BS Yediyurappa has been given the mandate to pacify MLAs who are threatening to join the Congress. There is speculation that a group of sitting legislators, including ST Somashekar, Munirathna and Bhyrati Basavaraj, could move to the Congress, which came back to power in the state in May.

The BJP’s former national general secretary CT Ravi, who held a meeting with the leaders on Saturday, ruled out exits and said the party was in the process of resolving the complaints of the sitting MLAs who made their grievances public. A party functionary, speaking on condition of anonymity, however said disagreements between party leaders have been brewing for some time.

“Those who joined the BJP have been complaining that they did not get the requisite support from the party cadre during the assembly polls; some have complained of being overlooked at party functions or public events. Then there are complaints from senior leaders who have been with the BJP for a long time that they were overlooked for positions and had to make room for the new entrants who till the other day were their political opponents,” the functionary said.

The leader blamed “lack of strong leadership” in the state for the squabbles. “The power struggle between the old guard and the new entrants needs to be handled at the state level. But the whole state unit is in a state of flux. A new leader of the opposition has not been appointed, a new state president is also awaited…at present the party unit seems directionless and leaderless,” the functionary said.

With the possible exits threatening to weaken the party’s bid to retain 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, the central leadership has cracked the whip and instructed the state unit to set aside differences.

In West Bengal too, the state unit has been asked to iron out differences between leaders in the run up to the 2024 polls.

A state leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the BJP has set a target of winning more seats in 2024 polls than it did in 2019 and for that to happen, it not only needs strong faces as candidates but also needs a “collective effort.”

In 2019, the BJP had won 18 of the 24 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, but after the 2021 assembly polls when the party won 77 of the 292 seats, there was a spate of exits. “The tally fell from 77 to 70 after some MLAs quit, at the district level too many workers quit, mostly because they felt the party did not do enough to save them from political vendetta. The problem of clashes between the senior lot and those who joined from the TMC, and other parties also surfaces frequently,” a second leader said.

In poll-bound MP, where at least three leaders who joined the BJP in 2020 chose to return to the Congress, the central high command has asked the state leader to follow cues from Delhi. “It is commonplace for leaders to have their own support base. In some of the regions where particular leaders attain a certain status and following, there can be friction between their followers. While all leaders are expected to follow the party line, some disgruntled leaders choose to follow another path, it is not unusual,” said a third party leader.

Asserting that leaders who were previously with the Congress and have now walked out will not affect the BJP’s performance, the third leader quoted above said, “Elections are fought based on issues. Faces and leaders are important too, but at present there is no better and formidable face than that of [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi. Those who have quit will not dent the BJP’s performance.”

Recently, Samandar Patel, an MLA who joined the BJP in 2020, returned to the Congress alleging “suffocation”. His exit was preceded by Baijnath Singh Yadav and Rakesh Kumar Gupta quitting the party in June.

Referring to Patel’s comment, the third leader said: “BJP has a well- established platform for allowing workers to air their views. There are many leaders who join with a certain outcome or ambition in mind and find it difficult to work; they are of course free to choose their path. In Patel’s case, he’s twice quit the Congress.”